B.4. Contents of the preconfiguration file

Note that this example is based on an installation for the Intel x86
architecture. If you are installing a different architecture, some of the
examples (like keyboard selection and bootloader installation) may not be
relevant and will need to be replaced by debconf settings appropriate for
your architecture.

B.4.1. Localization

Setting localization values will only work if you are using initrd preseeding.
With all other methods the preconfiguration file will only be loaded after
these questions have been asked.

The locale can be used to specify both language and country.
To specify the locale as a boot parameter, use
locale=en_US.

Keyboard configuration consists of selecting a keyboard architecture and a
keymap. In most cases the correct keyboard architecture is selected by
default, so there's normally no need to preseed it. The keymap must
be valid for the selected keyboard architecture.

To skip keyboard configuration, preseed
console-tools/archs with
skip-config.
This will result in the kernel keymap remaining active.

Note

The changes in the input layer for 2.6 kernels have made the keyboard
architecture virtually obsolete. For 2.6 kernels normally a “PC”
(at) keymap should be selected.

B.4.2. Network configuration

Of course, preseeding the network configuration won't work if you're
loading your preconfiguration file from the network. But it's great when
you're booting from CD or USB stick. If you are loading preconfiguration
files from the network, you can pass network config parameters by using
kernel boot parameters.

If you need to pick a particular interface when netbooting before loading
a preconfiguration file from the network, use a boot parameter such as
interface=eth1.

Although preseeding the network configuration is normally not possible when
using network preseeding (using “preseed/url”), you can use
the following hack to work around that, for example if you'd like to set a
static address for the network interface. The hack is to force the network
configuration to run again after the preconfiguration file has been loaded
by creating a “preseed/run” script containing the following
lines:

killall.sh dhclient
netcfg

# netcfg will choose an interface that has link if possible. This makes it
# skip displaying a list if there is more than one interface.
d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto
# To pick a particular interface instead:
#d-i netcfg/choose_interface select eth1
# If you have a slow dhcp server and the installer times out waiting for
# it, this might be useful.
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_timeout string 60
# If you prefer to configure the network manually, uncomment this line and
# the static network configuration below.
#d-i netcfg/disable_dhcp boolean true
# If you want the preconfiguration file to work on systems both with and
# without a dhcp server, uncomment these lines and the static network
# configuration below.
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_failed note
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_options select Configure network manually
# Static network configuration.
#d-i netcfg/get_nameservers string 192.168.1.1
#d-i netcfg/get_ipaddress string 192.168.1.42
#d-i netcfg/get_netmask string 255.255.255.0
#d-i netcfg/get_gateway string 192.168.1.1
#d-i netcfg/confirm_static boolean true
# Any hostname and domain names assigned from dhcp take precedence over
# values set here. However, setting the values still prevents the questions
# from being shown, even if values come from dhcp.
d-i netcfg/get_hostname string unassigned-hostname
d-i netcfg/get_domain string unassigned-domain
# Disable that annoying WEP key dialog.
d-i netcfg/wireless_wep string
# The wacky dhcp hostname that some ISPs use as a password of sorts.
#d-i netcfg/dhcp_hostname string radish

B.4.3. Mirror settings

Depending on the installation method you use, a mirror may be used to
download additional components of the installer, to install the base system,
and to set up the /etc/apt/sources.list for the installed
system.

The parameter mirror/suite determines the suite for
the installed system.

The parameter mirror/udeb/suite determines the suite
for additional components for the installer. It is only useful to set this
if components are actually downloaded over the network and should match the
suite that was used to build the initrd for the installation method used for
the installation.
By default the value for mirror/udeb/suite is the
same as mirror/suite.

B.4.4. Partitioning

Using preseeding to partition the harddisk is very much limited to what is
supported by partman-auto. You can choose to partition
either existing free space on a disk or a whole disk. The layout of the
disk can be determined by using a predefined recipe, a custom recipe from
a recipe file or a recipe included in the preconfiguration file. It is
currently not possible to partition multiple disks using preseeding.

Warning

The identification of disks is dependent on the order in which their drivers
are loaded. If there are multiple disks in the system, make very sure the
correct one will be selected before using preseeding.

# If the system has free space you can choose to only partition that space.
# Note: this must be preseeded with a localized (translated) value.
#d-i partman-auto/init_automatically_partition \
# select Guided - use the largest continuous free space
# Alternatively, you can specify a disk to partition. The device name
# can be given in either devfs or traditional non-devfs format.
# For example, to use the first disk:
d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/discs/disc0/disc
# In addition, you'll need to specify the method to use.
# The presently available methods are: "regular", "lvm" and "crypto"
d-i partman-auto/method string lvm
# If one of the disks that are going to be automatically partitioned
# contains an old LVM configuration, the user will normally receive a
# warning. This can be preseeded away...
d-i partman-auto/purge_lvm_from_device boolean true
# And the same goes for the confirmation to write the lvm partitions.
d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true
# You can choose from any of the predefined partitioning recipes.
# Note: this must be preseeded with a localized (translated) value.
d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe \
select All files in one partition (recommended for new users)
#d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe \
# select Separate /home partition
#d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe \
# select Separate /home, /usr, /var, and /tmp partitions
# Or provide a recipe of your own...
# The recipe format is documented in the file devel/partman-auto-recipe.txt.
# If you have a way to get a recipe file into the d-i environment, you can
# just point at it.
#d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe_file string /hd-media/recipe
# If not, you can put an entire recipe into the preconfiguration file in one
# (logical) line. This example creates a small /boot partition, suitable
# swap, and uses the rest of the space for the root partition:
#d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string \
# boot-root :: \
# 40 50 100 ext3 \
# $primary{ } $bootable{ } \
# method{ format } format{ } \
# use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 } \
# mountpoint{ /boot } \
# . \
# 500 10000 1000000000 ext3 \
# method{ format } format{ } \
# use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 } \
# mountpoint{ / } \
# . \
# 64 512 300% linux-swap \
# method{ swap } format{ } \
# .
# This makes partman automatically partition without confirmation.
d-i partman/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/choose_partition \
select Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
d-i partman/confirm boolean true

B.4.5. Partitioning using RAID

You can also use preseeding to set up partitions on software RAID arrays.
Supported are RAID levels 0, 1 and 5, creating degraded arrays and
specifying spare devices.
If you are using RAID 1, you can preseed grub to install to all devices
used in the array; see Section B.4.10, “Boot loader installation”.

Warning

This type of automated partitioning is easy to get wrong. It is also a
very new component that may still have some bugs or missing error
handling. The responsibility to get the various recipes right (so they
make sense and don't conflict) lies with the user.
Check /var/log/syslog if you run into problems.

Note that only RAID 0 and RAID 1 have been tested by the developers of the
component. RAID 5 is untested. Advanced RAID setup with degraded arrays or
spare devices has only been tested lightly.

B.4.6. Clock and time zone setup

# Controls whether or not the hardware clock is set to UTC.
d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true
# You may set this to any valid setting for $TZ; see the contents of
# /usr/share/zoneinfo/ for valid values.
d-i time/zone string US/Eastern

B.4.7. Apt setup

Setup of the /etc/apt/sources.list and basic configuration
options is fully automated based on your installation method and answers to
earlier questions. You can optionally add other (local) repositories.

# You can choose to install non-free and contrib software.
#d-i apt-setup/non-free boolean true
#d-i apt-setup/contrib boolean true
# Uncomment this if you don't want to use a network mirror.
#d-i apt-setup/use_mirror boolean false
# Uncomment this to avoid adding security sources, or
# add a hostname to use a different server than security.debian.org.
#d-i apt-setup/security_host string
# Additional repositories, local[0-9] available
#d-i apt-setup/local0/repository string \
# deb http://local.server/debian stable main
#d-i apt-setup/local0/comment string local server
# Enable deb-src lines
#d-i apt-setup/local0/source boolean true
# URL to the public key of the local repository; you must provide a key or
# apt will complain about the unauthenticated repository and so the
# sources.list line will be left commented out
#d-i apt-setup/local0/key string http://local.server/key
# By default the installer requires that repositories be authenticated
# using a known gpg key. This setting can be used to disable that
# authentication. Warning: Insecure, not recommended.
#d-i debian-installer/allow_unauthenticated string true

B.4.8. Account setup

The password for the root account and name and password for a first regular
user's account can be preseeded. For the passwords you can use either clear
text values or MD5 hashes.

Warning

Be aware that preseeding passwords is not completely secure as everyone
with access to the preconfiguration file will have the knowledge of these
passwords. Using MD5 hashes is considered slightly better in terms of
security but it might also give a false sense of security as access to a
MD5 hash allows for brute force attacks.

The passwd/root-password-crypted and
passwd/user-password-crypted variables can also
be preseeded with “!” as their value. In that case, the
corresponding account is disabled. This may be convenient for the root
account, provided of course that an alternative method is setup to allow
administrative activities or root login (for instance by using SSH key
authentication or sudo).

An MD5 hash for a password can be generated using the following command.

$ echo "r00tme" | mkpasswd -s -H MD5

B.4.9. Base system installation

There is actually not very much that can be preseeded for this stage of the
installation. The only questions asked concern the installation of the kernel.

B.4.10. Boot loader installation

# Grub is the default boot loader (for x86). If you want lilo installed
# instead, uncomment this:
#d-i grub-installer/skip boolean true
# This is fairly safe to set, it makes grub install automatically to the MBR
# if no other operating system is detected on the machine.
d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true
# This one makes grub-installer install to the MBR if it also finds some other
# OS, which is less safe as it might not be able to boot that other OS.
d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true
# Alternatively, if you want to install to a location other than the mbr,
# uncomment and edit these lines:
#d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean false
#d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean false
#d-i grub-installer/bootdev string (hd0,0)
# To install grub to multiple disks:
#d-i grub-installer/bootdev string (hd0,0) (hd1,0) (hd2,0)

B.4.11. Package selection

You can choose to install any combination of tasks that are available.
Available tasks as of this writing include:

standard

desktop

gnome-desktop

kde-desktop

web-server

print-server

dns-server

file-server

mail-server

sql-database

laptop

You can also choose to install no tasks, and force the installation of a
set of packages in some other way. We recommend always including the
standard task.

If you want to install some individual packages in addition to packages
installed by tasks, you can use the parameter
pkgsel/include. The value of this parameter can be
a list of packages separated by either commas or spaces, which allows it
to be used easily on the kernel command line as well.

tasksel tasksel/first multiselect standard, desktop
#tasksel tasksel/first multiselect standard, web-server
#tasksel tasksel/first multiselect standard, kde-desktop
# Individual additional packages to install
#d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server build-essential
# Some versions of the installer can report back on what software you have
# installed, and what software you use. The default is not to report back,
# but sending reports helps the project determine what software is most
# popular and include it on CDs.
#popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean false

B.4.12. Finishing up the first stage install

# Avoid that last message about the install being complete.
d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note
# This will prevent the installer from ejecting the CD during the reboot,
# which is useful in some situations.
#d-i cdrom-detect/eject boolean false

B.4.13. X configuration

Preseeding Debian's X config is possible, but you probably need to know
some details about the video hardware of the machine, since Debian's X
configurator does not do fully automatic configuration of everything.

# X can detect the right driver for some cards, but if you're preseeding,
# you override whatever it chooses. Still, vesa will work most places.
#xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/device/driver select vesa
# A caveat with mouse autodetection is that if it fails, X will retry it
# over and over. So if it's preseeded to be done, there is a possibility of
# an infinite loop if the mouse is not autodetected.
#xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/autodetect_mouse boolean true
# Monitor autodetection is recommended.
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/autodetect_monitor boolean true
# Uncomment if you have an LCD display.
#xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/lcd boolean true
# X has three configuration paths for the monitor. Here's how to preseed
# the "medium" path, which is always available. The "simple" path may not
# be available, and the "advanced" path asks too many questions.
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/selection-method \
select medium
xserver-xorg xserver-xorg/config/monitor/mode-list \
select 1024x768 @ 60 Hz

B.4.14. Preseeding other packages

# Depending on what software you choose to install, or if things go wrong
# during the installation process, it's possible that other questions may
# be asked. You can preseed those too, of course. To get a list of every
# possible question that could be asked during an install, do an
# installation, and then run these commands:
# debconf-get-selections --installer > file
# debconf-get-selections >> file